Done Deal: Michael Dell Wins Buyout Vote

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For the 140,000 Dell channel partners that have worked closely with the company for the past decade, the buyout win leaves many breathing a sigh of relief and wondering what's next.

"It gives Dell's future a lot of clarity, but I still have a lot of questions about the future," said Paul Clifford, president of Davenport Group, a St. Paul, Minn.-based solution provider and Dell partner. "Dell needs to tell us what its restructuring timetable is and how they are going to do it."

While details are scant on his roadmap, Michael Dell has been open about his goals to transform his company from what he calls "Core Dell" to a different "New Dell." In a letter to shareholders Michael Dell wrote earlier this summer: "We need to transform, and we need to do it quickly."

CEO Dell has said he wants to boost sales of back-office computing networks, push storage solutions for big data companies, and continue to offer security services to help companies protect their infrastructure and client devices. Dell has said he also hopes to expand the company's $1.1 billion in annual spending on research-and-development.

As a private company, Dell does not have to be accountable to shareholders and can pursue what it wants on its own timetable. "A private Dell can make quicker and more radical changes without having to cow-tow to Wall Street," said Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst for Moor Insights and Strategy.

Winning support for his leverage buyout was hard, but rejiggering his company will be much harder, Bajarin said.